When you choose an insurance carrier, how important is having an actual agent to you? Our auto insurance is coming due in a couple of weeks and I'm shopping around.

Recently while on vacation we had a small accident that crippled our vehicle and delayed us 5 days. Our current carrier is Allstate and because they had no "Pro Shops" in the area we had to pay all expenses out of pocket. Now, I could have sat and waited on an adjuster, however, after 4 days the adjuster still had not shown up or called and upon calling found out that he could be yet another 4 days!!! So, I called my agent and asked what I should do to make sure I've got all my bases covered for reimbursement. I figure if he can't answer this question then he's not worth his salt....well, he's not worth his salt. I think his exact words were, "I don't get into the details." I'm stranded 1000 miles from home and you tell me you don't get into the details??? And then he had the nerve to mention that I sounded upset!!! Yeah, I've been sleeping in hotels, have a busted car, and the person that said "call me anytime" just told me he could care less...yes, I'm a little upset!

Anyway, we're definately not sticking with that agent but what about any agent? Do you find them all that important (agent vs. geico, etc.) or is cost more important to you?

To tell you honestly, (I used to work for an insurance office) the agent just sells you the policy. On average they only make like $10 for the policy they sell you so they have to have a lot of clients to make any money at this. If you are in an accident the agent has no control over anything so you need to speak to the insurance adjuster handling the case directly. When you get into an accident ask you agent for the adjuster and speak with them only. They only reason I get excellent service from my agent is that he is my father and he knows the adjusters quite well so my stuff is taken care of quickly. Sorry I can't help you any more just that agents just sell the policy the actual company has to handle all of the details.

My stepmother is an insurance agent for American Family, and I can honestly say, in my experience of seeing what she does for the past decade-that actually HAVING an agent is a wonderful thing.
The key is, though, is to have a GOOD agent-not just anyone out of the phone book. I personally don't like Geico, or Safe Auto minimum coverage-or any place like that, without personal service.
The best thing for you to do honestly-is to talk with members of your family-older, more experienced people in your family who have had issues with car accidents, a fire, life insurance/death where they had a policy with an agent...and so forth, and find who in YOUR AREA gives good service.

You can't really go by "who has the best rate" or get an opinion from someone who pays their insurance-but has never had an incident where they needed to "use it" for a rental car/car repairs/a claim...or a house fire/robbery or so forth. You are going to find out the most from someone who has actually had to USE their insurance policies.

It sounds like your agent wasn't that great-but don't let that sway you away from EVERY agent in that company. (Meaning, there might be 4-5 agents for American Family in a large city and it's surrounding suburbs-your cost might be the same for car insurance, or homeoweners insurance-but one agent might be a better "service provider" than another.

It is basically just like finding a good mechanic, or hairstylist. There are going to be some who give great service...and others who "don't".

My boss and I are an insurance agency (our customers are car dealers) and yes, while we just sell the policy, we will bend over backwards to make sure any claims are handled quickly and also to keep you informed with the information that the adjuster may need. Claims adjusters are picky and one missing piece of paper will stall your claim.

I've been with Allstate for my personal stuff and just hated them. After rate increases 2 years in a row for no reason, I moved all my stuff to Farm Bureau Insurance. Love those guys.

Good luck (and don't forget to report that agent to Allstate. They don't want people like that representing them, I'm sure)

I've never seen my adjuster. My claims (I don't have gieco) are answered withing a week OR less. We call, they file, tell us where to go and we go. The check gets sent to the place we had the work done or to us.

I second that. I've been with various Allstate and State Farm reps (due to moves and finding a new agent in my area). And only one SF agent was worth a damn. He'd been my dad's agent for umpteen years and so it was like keeping it in the family. He actually seemed to care and personally took care of me. After he retired, my service went steadily downhill. All the others were just mouthpieces there to collect my money.

We have Shield of Shelter for our 3 vehicles. We know our agent very well and have gotten great service. We have had 3 accidents in 14 months. 2 done by my DH and one where I backed into a car in WAlmart parking lot. Our rates have not increased. During the time we had Farm Bureau, our rates went up with each renewal and we had never filed a single claim with them. I do think that having an agent that you can trust is great. We always are given the number to talk to an adjustor directly and our claims have always been paid the same week the accident occurred.
We did try Progressive at one time because the first offer(online)was so attractive. When the policy came, it was more than the agreed upon amount and extra money was taken from my checking account without my knowledge which could have caused additional bounced check fees. Also, the first renewal came after about 6 months and the rate had actually doubled with no claim filed. I dropped them like a hot potato.
My son has Geico insurance for his motorcycle. He hasn't had an accident and after 1 yr. his rate was cut in half. Which was great. He chose Geico because many company's won't insure what is called a "crotch-rocket" type motorcycle.

Now, I have had some experience with Progressive but it was the insurer of the other guy. I was at work and a guy lost control of his car, came off the road, THRU my car, which was parked, and into a pole before he went back out into the road. The adjuster with Progressive was on the scene before the tow truck left. I thought that was rather impressive. There is now Progressive Direct which is sold through agents. Anyone have experience with it?

Geico totally turned us off of agentless insurance. We had the misfortune of being rearended a few months after coming here and getting Geico because Nationwide doesn't exist in Hawaii, and getting the claim resolved was a pain. Geico told us to pay the $500 deductible, and if the other company agreed to pay it, they'd reimburse us. That's not the way it's supposed to work, but getting that across to Geico was a pain. Every single time my husband called to talk to them, he got a different "customer service" representative, and he had to explain the whole situation again.

True, they were slightly less expensive than Nationwide, but whenever we had an issue with Nationwide we could drive to our agent's office and sit down and talk to a real live human being who knew us and knew our situation and history. Like, when I made a payment while on vacation in San Antonio, and that office forgot to credit the payment, our agent called me to find out what had happened to the payment, helped me track down the exact office in San Antonio where I'd paid, and then called them to ask what the heck had happened with the payment. All of this, and there was no hiccup in my coverage.

Of course, my main issue with Geico was that they recieved a payment late, cancelled our insurance without notifying us (so we were unwittingly without insurance for a whole month), and cashed the check we sent them after cancelling our coverage. Which is to say, we mailed the payment, it got there late, they cancelled our coverage without notifying us, but took the money anyway. And then they wanted TWICE the previous amount to restart the policy.

We are now with AIG, and while we do not have a technical agent, there is a local office where we can go to and talk to actual people. And we're paying half of what we were with Geico (a quarter of what Geico wanted to renew the policy; DH literally laughed at them when they called to try to get our business back). And their commericals don't irritate me nearly as much. Oh, and the coverage is actually better, too. Geico dropped our uninsured motorist coverage at the policy renewal, which is a neat trick since it's required by law in this state. When we go back to Texas, though, we'll go back to Nationwide. They treated us quite well, and after Geico, I want an agent!

All insurance is headed toward "agent-less". State Farm has been my insurance co forever, but my agent really doesn't do any claims stuff. There's a completely different department for that.

Progressive Ins. is a very good company whose standards for claims adjusting are setting the bar higher for all companies in terms of response times.

Thank you all for the replies. I'm definately switching agents but still undecided on the company. I have about 4 days to decide so I guess I should get busy looking around a bit more. So far, the agentless companies have been higher than what I pay now but that may be due to my recent comprehensive claim. Dunno.

I have Farmer's Union. I LOVE my insurance agent. I'm about an hour away from his office, but I kept him because he really came through for me when I was in my accident. He used to be an adjuster, so to start with he talked me through the process step by step right from the beginning. When the other guy's insurance adjuster tried to jerk me around, my agent told me what I needed to do and how much was a reasonable amount to agree to. If it hadn't been for him, I would have been stuck with a $10k+ hospital bill that I wasn't liable for.

That said, I have had SafeCo in the past and I do NOT recommend them at all. I was in an accident shortly after I got my first car, and I had Safeco insurance. There was an issue with being sold a car with a branded title without the dealership letting us know. Not the insurance company's fault, however they knew it was branded and still had me have full coverage (illegal) and then backed out when it came time to pay for my medical bills and for the car, because it was a branded title. Even though I wasn't at fault, my premium went way up, and then it was like pulling teeth to get them to pay for anything. We finally had to write to our Attorney General's office.

The ironic thing is that the guy who hit me last time had Safeco insurance, so I got to give them as much of a headache as they gave me :P